Dry Dredgers Member Activites: A Fossil Blog

After the rains of the previous week, I decided to get a jump start on the upcoming Dry Dredgers field trip and visit my favorite Whitewater site, a road cut in Richmond, IN. This is a great site for brachiopods, with plentiful clean Hebertella, Vinlandostrophia, Rhynchotremadentatum, Rafinesquina and Strophomena. There are many bryozoa to be found too, along with the encrusting coral Protrarearichmondensis. By far the most common fossils here are the solitary corals, with Grewingkia being the most common, but you can also find occasional Streptalasma too. There are plenty of mollusks here as well primarily in the form of bivalve, gastropod and cephalopod internal molds. The only mollusks to be found that preserve the original shell features are the occasional nice specimens of the gastropod Cyclonema, and the pelecypod Caritodens.

I have picked up literally hundreds of specimens of the Rhynconellid brachiopod Rhyncotrema but no sign of the larger Hiscobeccus, which is much more common a little lower down in the Liberty (and is the one I find at Caesar Creek). In addition to the common stuff, I managed to find one Edrio on the dorsal valve of a Raf. Also attached to the shells of some of the Rafs, I have found a number of inarticulate brachiopods. I have found 1 specimen of a trilobite at this site. Unfortunately, I have not yet photographed it. I will include it in a future post.

In the attached photos you can see some of my haul from this past weekend.

Richmond, IN Road Cut – Red circle is a Rafinesquina. Blue circle is a Grewingkia.

Sammy Peek

Welcome to my blog. I joined the Dry Dredgers soon after moving to Pickerington, Ohio from coastal South Carolina in 2014. I am a past member of the Summerville (SC) Fossil Club, The Paleontological Research Institute and the South Carolina Shell Club. I worked for 15 years as a volunteer in the fossil and seashell collections of the Charleston Museum. I am a certified PADI Divemaster, and have collected quite a bit in the black water rivers of the South Carolina low-country. I also have a pretty nice collection of land and quarry collected fossils (primarily Pleistocene, Pliocene and Oligocene age) from all around SC, NC and FL. My main interests are invertebrates, but I collect just about everything. I have really enjoyed visiting some of the fossil sites in southwest OH and southeast IN for their Brachiopods, Mollusks, Corals, Bryozoa, and the occasional Trilobites and Crinoids. I will be sharing pictures and stories of the fossils I have collected in South Carolina as well as my new discoveries here in OH.

2 thoughts on “Fossil Hunting in the Whitewater Formation, March 19, 2016”

Hey Sammy. I like your post.
I recently moved from the Ordovician riches of Cincinnati to Savannah, GA. Is there a good club near me that you would recommend?
Megalodon teeth are certainly on my bucket list, but I’m also hoping to find some older fossils.. maybe in western GA?
Looking forward to seeing more posts!

The Hawthorn formation is well known for its megalodons, but I think it only outcrops in Eastern GA around the Savannah River. Also divers bring up nice megs in the bays around Savannah to Beaufort, SC.
Not familiar with what is available in Western GA.
I have always had luck with google searches when in a new area.
Good luck and good hunting.

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